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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 25, NO. 20, PAGES 3851–3854, 1998

Diurnal Oscillations in Atmospheric Pressure at Twenty-Five Small Oceanic Islands

Richard D. Ray

Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

Abstract

The diurnal oscillation in atmospheric surface pressure—the S₁(p) tide—is estimated at 25 oceanic stations. The estimated mean amplitudes and phases are compared to two theoretical predictions of the migrating S₁ component recently computed by Braswell and Lindzen and to the older wavenumber-1 decomposition of Haurwitz and Cowley. The new S₁ amplitudes are weaker than the Haurwitz-Cowley amplitudes everywhere, suggesting that their model may have been unduly influenced by nonmigrating components from continental stations. The observations show best agreement with a theoretical model having 25 W m⁻² additional atmospheric energy absorption relative to that inferred from general circulation models. Stations polewards of the S₁ critical latitude are somewhat anomalous.

Received 7 July 1998; accepted 18 August 1998.

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Citation: Ray, R. D. (1998), Diurnal Oscillations in Atmospheric Pressure at Twenty-Five Small Oceanic Islands, Geophys. Res. Lett., 25(20), 3851–3854.

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. Published in 1998 by the American Geophysical Union.